Struble, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Struble, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Struble lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Struble — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Struble — the short answer
Struble, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 100 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 100 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Struble's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Struble's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Struble
Each reading below is measured for Struble itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStruble runs about 180 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredStruble sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Struble is in
Struble sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Struble's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plymouth County.
What Grows in Struble
Every plant below cleared Struble's own zone 5a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Struble?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Struble
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Struble. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLYMOUTH COUNTY MAINT BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- NUSTAR PIPELINE OP PARTNERSHIP LP - LE MARSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 093N46W12DDDD 24556 1977IGS CRET Proj D-2Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- VOGEL PAINT & WAX CO.Superfund · 2.8 mi
- VOGEL PAINT & WAX CO.Brownfields · 2.8 mi
- FARMERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 094N45W17AACD 14860 1962Maurice 3Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 094N45W17AAC 00111 1939Maurice 2Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- PLYMOUTH COUNTY SOLID WASTE AGENCYBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- 094N45W17AACB 1975Maurice 4Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 094N45W17AACA 1915Maurice 1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- KRUIDS AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Struble's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Struble.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Struble
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Struble
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Struble, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Struble — Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites) and Nitrate (64 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Struble
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Struble average
Your land is one point inside Struble
Everything above resolves to Struble as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 100 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Struble Average
Struble Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Struble
- ●One soil character for all of Struble
- ●Frost dates read at Struble's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Struble's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Struble
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Struble, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Struble averages can't show:
We read public map data around Struble — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Struble average
How we know this about Struble
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Struble’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Struble
When does frost risk typically end in Struble?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Struble typically lands around Apr 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 10.
When is the first frost in Struble?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Struble typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Struble?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Struble sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 2, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Struble?
The federal record around Struble is a meaningful one — 213 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Struble?
From about Sep 16 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Struble's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Struble's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Struble’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Struble's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 100 acres it covers and 213 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Struble's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Struble's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 16 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 213 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Struble, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Struble's boundary and the 100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Struble's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Struble's 100 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plymouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plymouth County
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Plymouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Struble's 100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Struble you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 100 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Struble-wide figureread your own land →
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